Efficent Delta Pre-Fishing Help & Advise

[Guy Kelley]

Now that the spring is soon to come and the days are starting to get a bit longer. Has started me to rethink my pre fishing plans for the Delta.

I hope we can start a good dialog on pre fishing for what some including me find it hard and sometimes frustrating to come up with a plan that doesn't break down to nothing when I try to put 5 decent fish in the live wells.

Any suggestions ?

[Slippy]

hire Cooch for a guide trip.

[Terry Smith]

Go to Clear Lake

[Guy Kelley]

[quote="Terry Smith"]Go to Clear Lake [/quote]


Hhhhhhmmmmmmm!!!!!!!! Jerk, Jerk, Jerk

I said intelligent conversation

[Slippy]

Guy im serious, a guide will teach you more in one day then you can learn all season......

oh yeah throw the HHH frog

[Terry Smith]

[ash]

Go to Clear Lake

Hhhhhhmmmmmmm!!!!!!!! Jerk, Jerk, Jerk

I said intelligent conversation

You come on HERE asking for intelligence? wow ermmmm that is like asking for stock advise from the Short Bus stop.....dee dee dee

[Slippy]

Go to Clear Lake

Hhhhhhmmmmmmm!!!!!!!! Jerk, Jerk, Jerk

I said intelligent conversation

You come on HERE asking for intelligence? wow ermmmm that is like asking for stock advise from the Short Bus stop.....dee dee dee

oh stockoption you here that!!!!!! them fighting words!

[Cooch]

Now that the spring is soon to come and the days are starting to get a bit longer. Has started me to rethink my pre fishing plans for the Delta.

Any suggestions ?

Guy, pre-fishin is pre-fishin. It don't matter what time of year it is, and it don't matter what pond yer fishin on. Pre-fishing is a term used by tournament anglers. It is a time when they go to a body of water, several weeks, even months, before a scheduled event. It is a time to get familure with a body of water, the present conditions and find ways of catching fish that can be used in an upcoming event.

For most, pre-fishin is like a puzzle, some guys can put it together real quick, taking all the various pieces of that puzzle and inserting them in different ways to make it all come toghter. Most guys though, sit and struggle with one piece, never figuring out how that piece fits. They get locked into one bait or technique, never venturing out of their comfort zone. They fish yesterday's or last years patterns, not taking into considertation how much the variables and conditions have changed.

Prefishin is part of yer tournament game. If ya can't put it tagether, more often than not, yer prolly in the lower echelon in yer tournament rankings on a regular basis. Pre-fishing is indeed about catching fish, as many fish as you can, in as many ways as you can, in as many places as you can.

"Pre-fishin", is NOT, to be confused with pre-tournament practice(the day or two leading up to the actual event). Practice, is a period where you really do not want to stick many fish, just git an idea if the fish you found previously are living the same patterns as Pre-fish. Can you git bit with out sticking them? And this is where 90% of the tournament anglers fail, and fall way short of their expected plans come tournament day. They win the "Pactice" period, by sticking all these really good fish days before their event. We hear it all the time, "Yup, I'm on em good, caught some toads today." I used ta love hearin' that from guys, especially non local fellas. Course, I learned the hard way and have done this myself too. Prefishin' during yer practise, will more often than not, kill yer tournament chances.

Hiring a guide is an option, but you had better be very clear with him what yer looking for. You need to be clear your looking for productive patterns for a tournament. And if he askes you not to fish certain places he's taken you to, you should respect that, especially if you failed to communicate your real intentions with him up front. Hiring a guide for tournaments, should be more for your insight to finding fish, not his specific spots.

So my advice is to understand and utilize each accordingly. Learn to pick up and thouroughly apply each piece of the puzzle during Pre-fish. Confirm on practice what ya found in pre-fish, then spend the rest of yer practice looking for duplication of the patterns ya discovered. Do Not listen to, and chase the Dock talk. It's okay to listen too and pick out the important parts, most guys will willingly give it up, and really not know they did so. Take those pieces and apply them to what you do, not to chase where they are fishing.

[tunaman]

VERY well put Coochie - no wonder you're one of the River gurus!

Roger

[DAN]

Cooch was on target on his analysis of guiding for tournament guys! Prior to last year’s National guard cut off I had four different clients that were preparing for the event, Well the bite was miserable . Yet knowing what the clients wanted to learn and they being upfront with what they were preparing for allowed us to develop patterns best suited for each angler.

Each of them cashed checks with one making the cut. Guides can be a huge help in “opening your eyesâ€

[Jim Conlow Sr.]

Guy im serious, a guide will teach you more in one day then you can learn all season......

oh yeah throw the HHH frog

A few years back I took 3 guide trips with Rich Theil and I am still catching fish that I wouldnt have caught if I hadnt taken that instructuctional trip with Rich.

He and the other guides are as valuable to you to learn about fishing as your math teacher in school was valuable to you in learning math.

I have learned a lot from fishing the shared weight pro/ams as a nonboater but learned much more with a guide. The right guide is teaching you things that you will be able to use forever and the pro is only showing you what to do for that one day so you can help him to win on that day

I have learned a tremendous amount also from having been the camera boat for FLW twice in the Delta. Both times it was for the fisherman who was in first place. What I mainly learned is that they have a game plan and they stick with it way beyond the amount of time that I would have had the patience.

I am working on learning to have that patience.

I watched Aaron Martins win The BASS tournament in franks tract on a day when he was only in those sparse tulies at the end of the 5 mile an hour zone when you leave the slough to enter franks tract. He fished no more than 50 yards long and most times he never moved his boat more than 30 feet in a half hour. I really dont think that he did anything other than drop shot all day long. That is the kind of patience I am talking about